Honeymoon in Japan (Tokyo Disneyland/Universal Studios Japan)

[Jake S]

Hey everyone!

I've mentioned this in passing over the past several months, but I got married Saturday! We're leaving for our honeymoon Tuesday morning and will be in Japan for the better part of two weeks. We'll be starting our trip at Tokyo Disney (2.5 days, starting on Wednesday evening) and then moving to Osaka for five nights (Universal Studios Japan during that time) before heading back to Tokyo to wrap things up for five nights. We're debating doing a day at Nagashima Spa Land, but getting there is a bit of a pain as a day trip from either Osaka or Tokyo, so ... to be determined.

If you have any recommendations for any part of this trip, please drop them here! I'll likely be posting some photos as we go through the theme parks because it'll be too daunting to sit down in two weeks and do it all in one shot. Looking forward to sharing it all with ya.

 

[Jerroddragon]

If you feel the want to, make sure to talk about any cool little attractions you end up doing
I plan on still getting to the country one of these days

Also congrats and hope its a great time

 

[Jake S]

If you feel the want to, make sure to talk about any cool little attractions you end up doing
I plan on still getting to the country one of these days

Also congrats and hope its a great time

Yeah, my hope is to drop in anything we get to do in addition to the theme parks. And thank you! We've been looking forward to this since about... a couple days after we got engaged.

 

[Mad Dog]

Congratulations. And a great way to honeymoon, especially for hardcore theme park fans....Alene and I spent 10 days at WDW in April for our honeymoon. We finally got married after 16 years living together.

 

[Galactus]

Congratulations! We might just miss eachother at the airport since I head back home on Wednesday night!

Nagashima is doable as a day trip if you're comfortable transferring a couple different times. Was nervous about it myself but it was pretty smooth. I started from Tokyo, bullet train to Nagoya, take the Kintetsu train to Kuwana Station and then there's a bus that will take you right to Spa Land. It's not the easiest but it's doable and allegedly there's a bus that takes you straight from Nagoya Station but I didn't do that. Steel Dragon and Hakugei are both world class coasters so if you're able to go, I'd recommend it! Alternatively, if you're looking for an easier day trip to a park, Fuji Q is a direct bus ride from Shinjuku or Shibuya Station in Tokyo. Eejanaika is fantastic as you'd expect and then Fujiyama was one of the biggest surprises of my trip.

Both Disney and Universal are big into little snacks throughout the park. I'd recommend renting a second stomach so you have plenty of room to try all of them

Looking forward to seeing what you have to say about the parks and seeing your pics! Enjoy!

 

[Jake S]

hello there!

just a quick note to say: we made it safely to tokyo, have checked into the Hilton Tokyo Bay and were able to get into Tokyo DisneySea thanks to an evening (post 5 p.m.) ticket. we've officially crossed Magellan's and Journey to the Center of the Earth off the list and spent a lot of time wandering around the park, taking in the incredibly detailed theming.

it's a beautiful park and I'm glad we got to experience it at night to kick off our trip. will also add that Magellan's absolutely lived up to the hype — we had a wonderful meal in a great setting with terrific service. Journey to the Center of the Earth is also fantastic — and quite a bit more thrilling than I expected.

looking forward to a full day at each park starting tomorrow!

 

[Mad Dog]

hello there!

just a quick note to say: we made it safely to tokyo, have checked into the Hilton Tokyo Bay and were able to get into Tokyo DisneySea thanks to an evening (post 5 p.m.) ticket. we've officially crossed Magellan's and Journey to the Center of the Earth off the list and spent a lot of time wandering around the park, taking in the incredibly detailed theming.

it's a beautiful park and I'm glad we got to experience it at night to kick off our trip. will also add that Magellan's absolutely lived up to the hype — we had a wonderful meal in a great setting with terrific service. Journey to the Center of the Earth is also fantastic — and quite a bit more thrilling than I expected.

looking forward to a full day at each park starting tomorrow!

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Glad you're enjoying your trip. I'm especially impressed that you spent a lot of time wandering around the park, appreciating it's theming. That's something we always do, and always thought more people should do, instead of doing rides commando style.

 

[Jerroddragon]

The Tokyo Parks always look amazing....glad things are going well

 

[MikePat]

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GREAT PHOTOS!

 

[Jake S]

Glad you're enjoying your trip. I'm especially impressed that you spent a lot of time wandering around the park, appreciating it's theming. That's something we always do, and always thought more people should do, instead of doing rides commando style.

This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to explore a new-to-me park with this level of theming in more than a decade and it’s been so cool to just wander around and soak it in.

I also love not knowing where stuff is. I don’t know where any bathrooms are or the quickest way to an attraction — it’s so fun to just discover stuff organically.

 

[Mad Dog]

This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to explore a new-to-me park with this level of theming in more than a decade and it’s been so cool to just wander around and soak it in.

I also love not knowing where stuff is. I don’t know where any bathrooms are or the quickest way to an attraction — it’s so fun to just discover stuff organically.

I guess we'll all feel like that with Epic....Yes, I miss the adventure of the first time at the WDW & Universal parks, which I experienced as an older adult. As a child, my family was way too poor to be able to do any park short of our local amusement park, Kennywood, which was only a few miles street car ride from our house.

 

[Jake S]

Back in the hotel after a successful day at Tokyo Disneyland! It's a strange park, though perhaps less so if you've never been to either of the domestic castle parks. There's a lot of thematic bleed between lands, which aren't distinctly marked the same way you see at Disneyland or Magic Kingdom. And Tomorrowland is every bit as dated here as it is at Magic Kingdom, if not worse.



Those quibbles are largely footnotes because of a very strong attraction lineup. Let's start with the obvious: Beauty and the Beast is a masterclass of thematic design. Its conceit is simple (jam to most of the bangers from the film in a tea cup), but its execution is flawless. The technical wizardry is obviously noteworthy, but what makes this one of the greatest theme park attractions I've ever been on (it's right up there with Rise) is its success in telling a story with a strong emotional pull. This is a must ride — we paid for Disney Premier Access ($14 a person) and didn't regret it at all.



We also paid to skip the line at Splash Mountain for one last go through the Briar Patch. Though that may be presumptuous of me, because it was popping. Guests love the attraction, which isn't breaking news, and Tokyo Disneyland is unlikely to run up against the friction felt in the United States.



We were able to snag two FastPasses 40th Anniversary Priority Passes, one for Monsters Inc. Hide and Go Seek and another for Haunted Mansion Holiday. That meant waiting in a (very) long line for Winnie the Pooh, which suffered from pretty poor merge management. The ride is very good, though it has been surpassed (imo) by other, superior trackless attractions; not least the one a stone's throw away from it.

Perhaps most importantly, we finally got after our popcorn tasting game. We tried black pepper (good), strawberry cheesecake (mixed feelings) and caramel (amazing). In purchasing the caramel corn we secured the souvenir popcorn bucket we had our eyes on: the Beauty and the Beast light up bucket. It's awesome.



Otherwise, we were able to get on everything we wanted to, snacked our way through the day and even wrote our thank you notes at a table near Splash Mountain. We were a little disappointed in the postcard selection, but we were able to buy enough cards and stamps to drop off all our thank you notes in a Tokyo Disneyland mail box on the way out of the park. No complaints!

We're back at Tokyo DisneySea for a full day tomorrow. Looking forward to it!

 

[Jerroddragon]

I do want to point out in recent polls Splash was number 1 or 2 on people favorite attractions at WDW. So there was a fandom here but the history was too much for Disney but for sure the ride was loved and would have I think been even more loved if they sold merch but it has been hard to find any splash merch since basically 2000.

It's insane to me that no park has a amazing Tomorrowland.....I just dont get it, lol

 

[belloq87]

It's insane to me that no park has a amazing Tomorrowland.....I just dont get it, lol

At least in terms of attractions, Magic Kingdom's of the late 1990s/early 2000s -- Space Mountain, Alien Encounter, Timekeeper, Buzz, Carousel of Progress, PeopleMover -- is probably the best any Tomorrowland has ever been so far.

But yeah, it's kind of the weak link land everywhere, it seems. Aesthetically.

 

[Jerroddragon]

At least in terms of attractions, Magic Kingdom's of the late 1990s/early 2000s -- Space Mountain, Alien Encounter, Timekeeper, Buzz, Carousel of Progress, PeopleMover -- is probably the best any Tomorrowland has ever been so far.

But yeah, it's kind of the weak link land everywhere, it seems. Aesthetically.

Thats 20 years, ago, lol

My point is they need to better on this land. I know even back in the day they had issues figuring it out

I still don't get why this style was not the default. This has been a style for Sci Fi for like almost 20 years and works to me om every level. It has lights, looks like its next gen and has green parts. Just do this and over the Mall feel most of them have now.

 

[carah]

Disneysea is amazing, as is Japan in general...we were there for the first time in April, and have already booked to go back next May! If you can, I highly recommend renting a car and driving from Tokyo to Mount Fuji, it was our favourite day there and it only takes around 90 mins. Beautiful scenic drive, we went to Chureito Pagoda, which was lovely, (great views from up there) and to lake Kawaguchi! You're also right at Fuji Q so could visit there the same day. Also recommend Golden Gai and Omoide Yokocho for authentic izakayas...we had some crazy nights there lol!

 

[Jake S]

Wanted to drop some thoughts on the hotel while we get ready to head out for the day. We're staying, as I noted earlier, at the Hilton Tokyo Bay. We got a decent rate by booking pretty far in advance (around $580 total for three nights) and it's exceeded our expectations. The rooms are nothing to get excited about, but it's walking distance to the BaySide monorail station and a very strong breakfast buffet is included.

We also have access to the executive lounge (we're diamond members) but haven't had a chance to check it out because it closes at 8 p.m. There's also a convenience store that's fully automated and fully in Japanese, so we struggled with a machine there trying to buy some water before a nice man helped us out.

While we'd obviously love to stay at MiraCosta or the Disneyland Hotel one of these days, a combination of price and a convoluted booking process made Hilton the right choice.

Oh, and because I forgot yesterday: Baby's first popcorn bucket.

 

[Jake S]

we spent a full day at Tokyo DisneySea yesterday, complete with rides on Tower of Terror, Soaring, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Indiana Jones and Raging Spirits. we made ample use of both Priority Access (paid FastPass) and 40th Anniversary Pass (regular FastPass) to get everything done that we wanted to with (relatively) minimal wait in line. we also got a couple drinks at the Teddy Roosevelt Lounge onboard the S.S. Columbia, which was a treat.

in many ways, my initial thoughts on the park held up. it's just about perfect and a marked improvement on Tokyo Disneyland (which is also, I should add, a very good castle park). perhaps most impressive is the slightly anachronistic way the park is laid out, allowing you to feel that you're finding new nooks and crannies around every turn. there's also an impressive use of varied levels throughout the park, which gives the entire place an interesting depth. great park, great resort, highly recommend it.



I loved the treatment given to Tower of Terror at this park. while the ride experience is better in orlando, I'd be hard pressed to vote against this as the best installation of the ride system. the queue is incredibly detailed and I'm sure there are many things I missed that would benefit from a repeat ride. we were able to ride standby on this with only a 30 minute wait, something of a feat on this trip so far (the lines are long! for everything! including the popcorn!)



as such, it was important to pack our patience and do our best to go with the flow. we got FastPasses for both Indiana Jones attractions, with the Crystal Skull overlay a welcome variation on the theme. the ride desperately wanted to break down — we stalled in the boulder room for nearly two minutes before we got going again. but I'm happy to report that (gasp) all the effects were working. I can't remember the last time I could say that about a ride on Temple of the Forbidden Eye.

Soaring had a 120-minute wait for most of the day, so I sprung for the paid FastPass. unfortunately, it's largely the same film you'll find in both U.S. parks but with a different (and good) pre-show. that said, the reaction of the Japanese guests was a highlight to itself — this attraction got more applause than any other so far, which was quite endearing.





we got a chance to try curry (twice) and garlic shrimp popcorn. as a big curry lover, I was not surprised to find it was my favorite of the trip. garlic shrimp was a no from me but a yes from my partner. we missed the soy butter popcorn, but I suppose we'll just have to come back some day to check it out.



we tried a couple of the themed cocktails in the Teddy Roosevelt Lounge and then went to the classics — my partner got a gin and tonic and I got a Manhattan. I asked about getting a whiskey sour, but the "sorry, no" was a reminder that this is not quite a full bar in the same way you'd find at Carthay Circle, for instance. the drinking culture here is interesting — the majority of Japanese guests at the bar were ordering mocktails. but I also saw many guests grabbing a beer well before noon at Disneyland earlier in the week — so, who knows.

on the subject of drinks: the only beer that Tokyo Disney sells is the Kirin Ichiban draft. it's very light, which is good for walking around a theme park, but may not be worth your time if you actually want some alcohol with your beer. as always, your mileage may vary.

we ended up snacking around the park instead of getting a true meal, which I really enjoyed. there really are an endless number of snacking options, including many seasonal treats that are worth trying. we were able to wrap things up by 7:30 p.m. and get to bed early ahead of traveling to Osaka (where I am now!) our first experience on a bullet train was great, though it's certainly a bit chaotic navigating large Japanese rail stations. near everything is in English, but those who struggle in large crowds may find it all a bit stressful.

anyway, in the end we made it and are enjoying a little relaxation before hitting the town tonight. we'll be in Kyoto tomorrow and Universal Studios the day after. I'm sure I'll have something to share in the coming days, but that's all for now!

 

[Mad Dog]

This is a park that's themed so well I can imagine enjoying a day there even if I never stepped on a ride.

 

[Jake S]

hello there!

we went to universal studios japan on monday and, despite the immense crowds, really enjoyed ourselves. we were able to ride The Flying Dinosaur, Hollywood Dream: The Ride, JAWS and Dark Horror Ride. we were also able to do all three horror nights mazes, including Universal Monsters, Chucky and Resident Evil. that more than satisfied us because the park has so much to do and see that doesn't involve waiting in a line.

we checked out Super Nintendo World which is far superior to the truncated Hollywood version. the many layers, the extra stores and food options, all blow away the land in Hollywood. (full disclosure, I've spent precious little time in the Hollywood version, as @Michael S can attest).

while the merch situation at Tokyo Disneyland was eye opening, it truly didn't hold a candle to what was on offer at Universal Studios. Pokemon, Mario, Snoopy, Minions and much more all had impressive merch offerings. we spent more money on crap to take home for ourselves and family than we did on our park tickets. we also got a chance to try some fun food offerings, including the pikachu bun. we grabbed a meal at Finnegan's, which uses a virtual queue in Osaka that meant we waited only an hour to get a table — most of which we used to do a maze and some shopping.

my partner and I were very pleasantly surprised by the horror nights offerings. while they don't match the scenic of what you'll find in Orlando nor Hollywood, they heavily rely on talented and enthusiastic performers to tell stories. that, combined with the earnest consumption of the mazes by the Japanese guests, really made going through the mazes special. I highly recommend timing a visit to Japan with the running of this event — the way they celebrate halloween is infectious.

two final notes regarding attractions you can only do in Japan: JAWS and The Flying Dinosaur. I never got to experience JAWS in Orlando and have no regrets about experiencing it for the first time in Japan. our skipper was enthusiastic and fully committed to her role — we had an absolute blast experiencing this attraction even though we don't speak a word of Japanese (okay, we've nailed how to say hello and thank you). The Flying Dinosaur was an absolute blast and far more intense than I anticipated. the pair of pretzel loops, including one that takes you underground, stunned me in a very good way. I can't believe there's a better B&M flyer out there than Tatsu but ... well, there you go.

lastly, I have to give a huge shoutout to the attractions operations crews at both Disneyland and Universal Studios. even with immense crowds, I've rarely seen attractions operated so efficiently. that made our visit much more enjoyable. anyway, I'll have more to share in respective threads (and some non-theme park bits later on) but I feel like I've slept precious few hours since getting to Japan. thanks for reading!